The talking cricket from the original story of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

Honors and awards

One of Disney's most beloved charactersEnviromental Mascot at the Disney Parks

Character information

Full name

Sir Jiminy H. Cricket

Other names

Lord Highkeeper of the Knowledge of Right and Wrong, Counciler in Moments of High Temptation, and Guide Along the Straight and Narrow Paththe only conscience with a sense of humorThe Ghost of Christmas Past

Contents

Background

Development

Jiminy is based off the Talking Cricket from the original Pinocchio book that Walt Disney's film is based on. In the book, the cricket is killed by Pinocchio, but in the film, the cricket is named Jiminy and instead of being a cameo character, he was made into a major character and joins Pinocchio on his journey to becoming a real boy. According to Walt Disney and the filmmakers, Jiminy's role in the film was meant to develop the heart of the story in the friendship between him and Pinocchio. Jiminy was animated by one of Walt Disney's Nine Old Men, Ward Kimball. In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Ward animated a soup eating scene. The scene was eventually dropped and Ward was devastated. Walt realized this and decided to give Ward the job of designing and animating Jiminy Cricket. Like every animated Disney character, Jiminy went through an evolution of designs. Some of the earliest ones resembled more of a realistic cricket. According to Ward, this was a disgusting sight, so he made the character more and more of a cartoonish and sweet-looking creature to the point that the audience only knows he's a cricket because the film tells them.

Jiminy's name also has an interesting backstory. "Jiminy Cricket(s)!" was originally a polite expletive euphemism for Jesus Christ. The name of the character is a play on the exclamation (which itself was uttered in Pinocchio's immediate predecessor, 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). Another example occurs in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz when the group first enters the Wizard's chamber; they are startled by the Wizard's sudden thunder-and-lightning display, and cries, "Oh! Oh! Jiminy Crickets!" (Garland also says the expression in her 1938 film Listen, Darling). It had also been used as an exclamation by the Swedish father several times in the 1930 movie Anna Christie. Another time it is used is in the short 1938 cartoon starring Mickey Mouse The Brave Little Tailor. That expression is also Howard Cunningham's catchphrase on Happy Days.

Personality

Being an official conscience, Jiminy is rather wise and optimistic. He can be a bit aggressive when upset, but means well. Not only is he Pinocchio's conscience, but also his best friend, a relationship he treasures apparently. The two spend much of their time together to the point that Jiminy feels insulted and rejected when Pinocchio briefly called Lampwick his best friend. When first introduced, Jiminy was shown to be rather wise-cracking and humorous, often making jokes to amuse himself. Prior to meeting Pinocchio, Jiminy was sort of a realist, not believing in fairy tales and wishes. Of course, after the adventure with him and the little wooden boy, Jiminy's view of the world changed greatly. The cricket holds an obvious crush on The Blue Fairy. He often gets dumbfounded upon the mere sight of her. In spite of his naturally diminutive states, Jiminy shows no fear in facing enemies thrice his size as seen when he tried to get Pinocchio away from Honest John and Gideon and when he wanted to scuffle with Lampwick.

Appearances

The film Pinocchio marked Jiminy's debut. He is first seen singing When You Wish Upon A Star next to a book about Pinocchio. After a brief introduction to the viewers, he begins recounting the story of Pinocchio.

In the actual story, Jiminy is first seen in raggety clothing, traveling through a village late one night. He eventually comes to Geppetto's Workshop, which was the only sign of life. He sneaks inside and warms himself by the fire, while admiring Geppetto's work. Jiminy then observes as Geppetto finishes the puppet he has been working on. Jiminy overhears Geppetto's wish for the puppet to be a real boy, but brushes it off as impractical, though lovely. Jiminy later watches in amazement as The Blue Fairy brings Pinocchio to life. After a conversation with the fairy, Jiminy is appointed to be Pinocchio's conscience, as Pinocchio must prove himself worthy of being made a real boy. Jiminy then teaches Pinocchio to whistle so that Pinocchio can call him.

The next day, Jiminy oversleeps and rushes to find Pinocchio, who has been sent off to school. However, Pinocchio is instead encouraged to become an actor by Honest John. Despite Jiminy's counseling to go to school, Pinocchio becomes part of the show of Stromboli. Jiminy becomes angry, but starts to second guess himself when Pinocchio becomes popular. When Jiminy decides to wish Pinocchio good luck, he discovers that Stromboli has locked Pinocchio in a bird cage. Jiminy attempts to crack the lock to they can escape, but fails. The Blue Fairy later comes along and frees them, after teaching Pinocchio a lesson on lying.

Before the pair can reach home, Pinocchio is convinced to travel to Pleasure Island, said to be a land for boys. Jiminy manages to sneak on the stagewagon, but ends up separated from Pinocchio. Jiminy eventually finds Pinocchio in a pool hall, where he is smoking and drinking with Lampwick. Jiminy attempts to get Pinocchio to leave, but is insulted by Lampwick. Jiminy leaves in a huff, and attempts to go home. He discovers that boys who come to Pleasure Island are transformed into donkeys, and runs off to warn Pinocchio.

The two are able to leave by jumping in the sea, but not before Pinocchio grows a tail and donkey ears. Finally at home, they learn via a message that Geppetto has gone searching for Pinocchio and trapped by Monstro. Despite Jiminy essentially being live bait, he follows Pinocchio into the sea to search for Geppetto. However he is separated from Pinocchio after Pinocchio is swallowed by Monstro. Jiminy is forced to find shelter in a bottle to avoid being eaten.

After Pinocchio and Geppetto escape, Jiminy is the one who discovers that Pinocchio has died as a result. At Geppetto's workshop, he is shown to be mourning. Like everyone else, he is overjoyed when Pinocchio is revived as a real boy. He manages to step away from the party, and thanks the Blue Fairy for helping them. As recognition of his own contributions, the Blue Fairy rewards him with a solid gold badge declaring him an official conscience.

Jiminy essentially serves as the set-up for the two segments. He is shown exploring a house, and comes across a record player and record Bongo. After that, Jiminy sees a party invitation from Luanan Pattern, who lives in the house "across the way". Joining the party are ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummies, Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. He goes to the house and listens to Bergen telling the story of Mickey and the Beanstalk. At the end, Jiminy leaves the house and watches Willie the Giant heading straight to Hollywood, looking for Mickey Mouse.

Jiminy hosts many Disney television specials. In a recurring segment of the children's television series Mickey Mouse Club, he taught a generation how to spell e-n-c-y-c-l-o-p-e-d-i-a.

I'm No Fool

In the 1960s and 1970s, Jiminy Cricket appeared in two different series of educational films aimed at grade-school-aged audiences. In the "I'm No Fool" series, he advised children how to steer clear of dangerous traffic, sharp objects, strangers, exposed electrical lines, and so forth. In each short, he sang the refrain:

I'm no fool, no sirree!I'm gonna live to be 33 (then 43, 53, etc., up to 103)I play safe for you and me'Cause I'm no fool!

Jiminy is shown making use of a chalkboard to illustrate his lessons. Figuring prominently was "You", an idealized boy meant to represent the audience and show the safe methods, and the Fool, who always demonstrated foolish and reckless methods.

You (Are a Human Animal)

The other series was called "You", which teaches about the human body with the refrain "You are a human animal...".

Jiminy appeared in Mickey's Christmas Carol as the Ghost of Christmas Past. (The badge given to him by the Blue Fairy at the end of Pinocchio marking him as an official conscience now declares him to be the Ghost of Christmas Past.) Scrooge is perplexed at his size, but Jiminy shoots back at him that if he were measured by his amount of kindness, "you'd be no bigger than a speck of dust!" Nevertheless, he shows Scrooge past Christmases of him: (Scrooge) while working at Fezziwig's and the horrid memory where Scrooge put his money before his love, which he never saw again. As Scrooge begs the minuscule ghost to take him away from these bad memories, Jiminy reminds Scrooge that "you fashioned these memories yourself". (It should be noted that Past was going to be portrayed by Merlin instead of him, as it was in the original audio recording that came out a few years prior to the special's release).

Jiminy was also among the numerous Disney characters to appear in the television series House of Mouse and its direct-to-video compilation films. A running gag in the series involves Timon from The Lion King trying to eat him, but rescued by Pumbaa, as one of the rules of the club is "No guests eating other guests". He plays a prominent role in Mickey's Magical Christmas as he helps Mickey find the true meaning of Christmas through the help of wishing upon a star. In "Dining Goofy", he showed to be unamused with the fact that he was seated with Eeyore, and fails to try to cheer him up.

Jiminy's most notable appearance is in the episode Jiminy Cricket, where he quits the job of being Pinocchio's conscience. At the beginning of the episode, Jiminy suggests that Pinoke should not sit with Pain and Panic, considering them a "bad influence." When Pain overhears this, he says a not-so-nice remark about Jiminy, and unvoluntarally flicks him across the stage. Later on backstage, when Jiminy explains that he wants to quit being Pinocchio's conscience. Mickey feel bad for him and wishes that he could help, the Blue Fairy unexpectedly shows up to grant his wish by being Jiminy's new client. Mickey becomes annoyed and fashioned up a plan to reunite the two (as Jimmy was changing Mickey too much; even making him dress and act like Pinocchio). The plan worked and Jiminy got on stage to teach various Disney characters lessons such as Simba, Princess Aurora and Aladdin.

Jiminy (Raphael Sbarge, Adam Young as a child) is the son of unscrupulous con artists in the ABC television series. Disapproving his parents' treachery, he desires to live an honest life, but was too weak-willed to leave his family. Eventually, he receives a potion from Rumplestiltskin that will free Jiminy from his parents. However, he inadvertently gives the potion to a young couple, transforming the pair into puppets. He wishes on a star in the hopes that the couple will be transformed back, but the Blue Fairy appears and tells him she cannot undo Rumplestiltskin's work. Instead, he wishes to make things right, and she transforms him into a cricket so that he can be free from his parents and guide the couple's son Geppetto for as long as the boy lives. He later helps the dwarves confront Snow White about her mean-spirited behavior after she drinks a potion and forgets about her true love Prince James. However, the confrontation drives her to want to kill the Evil Queen. He later tells James that the only way for her to remember James is if she remembers her true self. Much later, he is seen advising the residents of the Enchanted Forest against waging war with the Queen and urges them to find a more peaceful solution.

Jiminy's Storybrooke counterpart, Archie Hopper

In Storybrooke, he is Dr. Archie Hopper, the town's psychotherapist. He owns a Dalmatian named Pongo and is frequently seen carrying an umbrella, like he does as a cricket in the Enchanted Forest. He is also good friends with Marco, who is actually Geppetto. Archie is asked by Regina (who is actually the Queen) to convince Henry that his ideas about the curse and the true identities of the Storybrooke residents is "crazy."He makes little progress, and Regina becomes impatient and asks him to take a more radical approach. Although it violates his conscience, he initially complies with her demands. Archie later confides to Henry that he wants to be free to do as he wants, and Henry tells him that Jiminy Cricket was a man who took a long time deciding what the right thing to do was. Archie then stands up to Regina and threatens to declare her an unfit mother if she continues to interfere with his sessions with Henry. Archie later puts David under hypnosis to help David remember his actions during his black-outs, causing David to remember some of his memories from the Enchanted Forest.

After the curse was broken, Archie reunites with the other characters and tries to help find out what to do. With Regina regaining her magic and the new curse of leaving Storybrooke, Archie becomes part of the group who attempt to leave Storybrooke and sacrifice his Fairytale memories to get away from Regina but David's speech encourages him and the others to stay. Regina later visits him, where he encourages Regina to allow her to help him. Regina tells him she has not used magic in two days and it has become a struggle. Archie then asks Regina if there is anything she is holding onto, and she confesses that she preserved her love Daniel's corpse upon his death in the hopes that he could be brought back to life. Archie then states Regina will not be able to move on until she lets go of the past. Regina storms off, but she later returns and confesses to Archie that she used magic that same day. Archie helps her into his office. Much later, Archie is kidnapped by Cora, Regina's mother, and holds him captive in Captain Hook's ship, while leaving the body of another in his place disguised to look like him so everyone else will think he is dead. Cora plans to use him to gain information of others in the town.

Video games

Jiminy stars in the 1999 PC game Disney's Villains' Revenge. The Disney Villains change their respective stories giving them the upper hand. Jiminy travels through the stories to save the troubled heroes.

Jiminy first makes his appearance in Disney Castle and becomes Sora, Donald, and Goofy's royal chronicler under the order of Queen Minnie. He explains to Goofy that he escaped right before his world was destroyed, and he was scattered from his friends. After they befriend Sora, they travel to many different worlds in search for the King, Riku, and Kairi. Sometime after, he meets up with Pinocchio in Traverse Town, and tells him to stay put while he sets out to find Geppetto, his father.

When they head for Atlantica/Halloween Town, depending on which world the player chooses, they get swallowed by the giant whale Monstro and meet up with Pinocchio again, this time reunited with his father Geppetto. But then Pinocchio was lured away from his friends by Riku and they searched for him until a Parasite Cage Heartless captured Pinocchio and attempted to take his heart. He failed, but then Riku captured him and stole his heart in hopes to be able to replace Kairi's heart. Jiminy, Sora, Donald, and Goofy manage to restore Pinocchio's heart with the united power of their hearts. Then, they battle Parasite Cage again and defeat it once and for all, but then Monstro feels ill and spit them out and separate Jiminy away from Pinocchio. He finds out that Pinocchio and Geppetto are okay after they visit Traverse Town again and find them living there.

Jiminy appears alongside Sora, Donald, and Goofy, and his role in this game is much more important; he appears more often, and during the game he is the one that tries to keep the team together. He is alone with Sora when Sora runs away from Donald and Goofy.

Like the others, his memories are also disappearing the more they head for each level of Castle Oblivion. Even the entries in his journal have disappeared altogether upon entering Castle Oblivion.

When Sora gets angry at Donald and Goofy for not wanting to help save Naminé, he sets out to find her by himself. Jiminy tries to reason with him, but he refuses to listen. When they finally meet Naminé, they find out from her that they have not actually met, but were rather fooled by her abilities to control memories of Sora and those attached to his heart. But Sora forgives her for her doing and they all set out to fight against those who made Naminé do what she did.

After the protagonists finally defeat Larxene, Vexen, and Marluxia, the members of Organization XIII, Naminé takes them to a room of Memory Pods, where she tells them she will be able to restore their memories while they sleep in them. But it will take some time, because rechaining memories is harder than severing them. However, as a price they will lose their memories of all things that happened while they were in Castle Oblivion. Afraid that they might not be able to thank her for what she does for them, Jiminy writes down a small entry in his journal that says "Thank Naminé".

In Kingdom Hearts II, Jiminy only appears once. A year after the events of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy awake from their long, deep slumber in Twilight Town, and have no memories of what happened right after they closed Kingdom Hearts. Goofy asks Jiminy what his journal says, and Jiminy only finds a sentence: "Thank Naminé". Unable to know who she is anymore, Donald scoffs at him for his bad journal entry and Jiminy dismisses it by telling to go and find out where they are. He doesn't reappear at all in the game after this event.

Jiminy reappears in Kingdom Hearts coded. His journal compiled in previous games is a major plot element, as well as a main character.

Jiminy is reorganizing his journal when he suddenly finds a sentence saying "We must return to free them from their torment". Jiminy cannot recall any memory of that entry, so he shows the text to King Mickey. To investigate, King Mickey creates a Sora out of data to try and find out more about the mysterious entries that continually appear. As Sora continues to unravel the Bug Block Corruption that is affecting the Data Worlds, Jiminy somehow gets sucked into the data world, along with King Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. At the game's climax, however, he is presumably sent back to the real world along with his friends after the debugging of the journal is complete.

During Sora and Riku's respective adventures in Prankster's Paradise, they encounter a "dream" of Jiminy Cricket who was ordered by the Blue Fairy to educate Pinocchio to be a good boy. As this is the Jiminy created by the world prior to being consumed in darkness, he has no memory of Sora or Riku.

Kinect Disneyland Adventures

Live appearances

Jiminy Cricket appears as a meetable character and is seen in parades and shows. He is usually seen alone or with Gepetto or Pinocchio. Jiminy also appears as a safety mascot along with Pinocchio and Gepetto in the Disney Parks. He also acts as a mascot of Disney's environmental initiatives in the parks, appearing on recycling cans and often appearing at Rafiki's Planet.

In the live show Fantasmic! in Disneyland and Walt Disney World, Jiminy makes an appearance. Jiminy is the protector of Mickey Mouse's dreams and he is imprisoned by the Villains as they plan to turn Mickey's dreams into a deadly nightmare. Jiminy is later freed by Mickey and he joins the Disney characters as they passed the audience in Steamboat Willie or Mark Twain Riverboat (depending on the park destination).

Jiminy often makes appearances in the Disney On Ice touring shows, especially in those involving Pinocchio. As with the original film, he appeared as Pinocchio's conscience in the Pinocchio adaptation in 1987. Unlike most live appearances, in that show, Jiminy was portrayed by a puppet rather than a walk-around character.

Trivia

Jiminy, along with Mater from Cars, have both been given title of "Sir", with Jiminy being dubbed as Pinocchio's conscience at the beginning of Pinocchio by the Blue Fairy, while Mater is enknighed by the Queen of England at the end of Cars 2.